“Let the world burn.”
*shivers*
With a tagline like that, you know a book is going to take you a wild freaking ride.
I’ve been pretty honest about how slow I felt the first half of Ink and Bone
was, and I half-expected Paper and Fire to go the same route – preferring a slow build-up to an action-packed adventure right from the get-go – but I was wrong.
This book dives straight into the plot where Ink and Bone left off – we have Jess figuring out his place as a soldier instead of a librarian, pining over Morgan’s fate in the Iron Tower, and basically still being a kick-butt book smuggler on the side.
There are some great character additions in this book that make it stronger, for instance, the appearance of Scholar Wolfe’s mother, The Obscurist Magnus, Keria Morning. I really really adored her. I’ve had a soft spot for Scholar Wolfe since book one, so I was thrilled to get more of him being all protective and adorable. I was equally psyched to get to see amazing character development for Khalila, Dario (especially ESPECIALLY Dario), Glain, Morgan, and (though unfortunately to a bit of a lesser extent) Jess. Plus, we get more of Jess’ brother and father, both of whom were pleasantly unpredictable.
This group has the mystery left behind by Thomas’ death to unravel, which leads them deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole of things The Great Library is hiding (we don’t even have time to list all the things that should be on that list). The entire book feels like it is running forward until we come to the grand finale, a conclusion that left me breathless and about to throw the book across the room.
It is a cliffhanger to be remembered, and now I’m DYING for the third book to come out already so that I can know how it ends. The ending was by far one of my favorite moments in the whole series, and if the third book can capture that adrenaline rush and really go with it, I think it’s bound to be the best book in the whole series.
I love how these books get better and better as they progress, and I really am thrilled to see what Rachel Caine will come up with next.
Rating: 4.6/5 stars